Padme's Hope
by Kali1
Summary: An idea I had for the ending of episode 3. Pure speculation on my part.


My idea for a possible ending to Episode 3:

__

_Padme's Hope_: 

_"Are you an angel?" Were the first words her beloved husband had spoken to her when they met. Oh, so many years ago. He had told her that he would marry her. She had politely laughed at the cherub faced nine-year-old's comment. Dismissing it as an innocent crush. But now looking back, she realized he had foreseen everything. Everything but his own downfall and, apparently the birth of their twins. For which she will be eternally thankful and relieved._

_She looks over into the twins ornate cribs. Her two little angels of light, innocent in their purity, not knowing that their father's very soul was at stake this night. _

_If only she hadn't trusted Palpatine. If only......_

_"There is no use dwelling on the Emperor, Padme. No one knew what he was up to. That he was targeting and manipulating Anakin. I tried reasoning with him. By Yoda, I tried. But he refused to listen. His arrogance wouldn't allow it." A tearful Obi-Wan Kenobi enters her dimly lit chambers carrying her husband's lightsaber. _

_"....... He's dead, isn't he?" Padme asks fearfully, tears shining in her eyes._

_"I...... We were dueling. I was trying to save him from the Dark Side, to help him come back to us, but he was too far gone. He fell into the lava pit. There was nothing I could do to save him. ......I ........ I failed him. I am so sorry." Kenobi says, struggling to fight the tumultuous emotions battling inside of him. His former apprentice, his friend was gone, and he was the one who was responsible. His grief felt like it would overwhelm him, and yet, there was a small part of him that was relieved that Anakin was dead. The little boy he had raised to adulthood. The one who had been so eager and impatient to learn the ways of the force, so that he could vanquish slavery and oppression. How could he feel this way? How could he feel relief that someone he loved was dead?_

_"No..." Padme can do little more than whisper out in horror. "Oh, Anakin."_

_"Padme, you'll never know how sorry I am. I blame myself. If only I had been a better master." Kenobi says, reaching out to comfort the young Queen, but she pulls away. Trying desperately to keep her composure. Afraid that she will break down in anguish._

_"It's not your fault. I am.... I was his wife, I should have seen the change in him. I knew how badly his mother's murder scarred him. But I was to busy in my duties as Queen, to help him through his guilt and anger." Padme says, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "Anakin. How I wish...."_

_"All we can do now is protect his children from the Emperor." Kenobi says, wiping one of her tears away. "They are our only hope against the Empire. His power in the force flows through them. If Palpatine learns of their existence."_

_"They'll be killed. Or worse, corrupted like their father for the Emperor's sick desires." Padme says, giving a wistful look at Luke in his crib. She carefully picks up her little boy, so peaceful in his sleep, and places him in Kenobi's arms. "As much as it pains me, they must be separated for their own good. Take Luke to somewhere far from here, where he will be safe. Someplace remote. Where the Emperor won't think to look. I'll take Leia with me."_

_"As you wish, Padme." Kenobi says, silently staring into Luke's innocent blue eyes, so much like his father's. Vowing that this time he would do it right. There would be no mistakes in Luke's Jedi training._

_"And Obi-Wan....." Padme says hesitantly._

_"Yes," Kenobi says, lifting up his eyes to face hers._

_"When he asks about his father.......... When he asks about his father, I want you tell him that his father was a brave and heroic Jedi Knight, for that is how I want Anakin remembered. As the hero he was during the Clone wars, before....." Padme says, closing her eyes to the pain of her memories. As if it would block them out, erase the horror, but it didn't, it never would._

_"I will keep Anakin's memory alive in his son. The memory of the man he was before he was seduced by the Dark Side. Of this Padme, have no fear." Kenobi tells her assuredly._

_"Thank you Obi-Wan, I shall be forever grateful." She says, placing a final kiss on her son's forehead. "Farewell, Ben. I shall hold you both in my thoughts and prayers."_

_As Kenobi closes the door behind him, Padme finally allows herself to collapse in grief over her lost husband. But she knows that she must go on, to protect their daughter, and to take revenge against the Emperor._


End file.
